THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  INDUSTRIES 


AS  ILLUSTRATED  BY  THE  RELATIONS  OF  THE  WOOLLEN 
MANUFACTURE. 


AN  ADDRESS 


DELIVERED  AT  THE  FAIR  OF  THE  AMERICAN 
INSTITUTE,  NEW-YORK  CITY, 

October  13,  1870. 


By  JOHN  L.  HAYES, 

SECRETARY  OF  THE  NATIONAL  ASSOCIATION  OF  WOOL  MANUFACTURERS. 


CAMBRIDGE  : 

PRESS  OF  JOHN  WILSON  AND  SON. 

1870. 


' ' ~ n<xvnmondl 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  INDUSTRIES 

AS  ILLUSTRATED  BY  THE  RELATIONS  OF  THE  WOOLLEN 
MANUFACTURE. 


An  Address  delivered  at  the  Fair  of  the  American  Institute,  New  York  City, 

Oct.  13,  1870.  By  John  L.  Hayes. 

In  presence  of  these  magnificent  products  of  a diversified 
native  industry,  at  the  same  time  evidences  of  national  progress 
and  inspirations  for  higher  achievements,  it  would  be  a waste  of 
words  to  dwell  upon  the  importance  of  sustaining  upon  our  soil 
the  general  industry  which  has  placed  before  our  eyes  these  bril- 
liant results.  The  duty  of  developing  a national  industry  is  not 
a question  for  argument ; it  is  a sentiment  like  patriotism  or 
filial  love,  and  here,  at  least,  we  could  find  few  who  will  not  agree 
with  the  greatest  of  living  geologists,  Elie  de  Beaumont,  that 
” of  all  the  tendencies  which  occupy  different  civilized  nations, 
the  most  marked  is  that  of  fixing  upon  their  own  territory  all 
those  branches  of  industrial  activity  which  suit  its  soil,  climate, 
and  commercial  position;  and  that  government  will  most  preserve 
the  respect  of  neighboring  nations,  and  show  itself  worthy  of  the 
respect  of  its  people,  which  shall  use  all  its  means  of  action  to 
favor  with  discernment  this  tendency.”  And  few  would  refuse 
to  partake  of  the  " noble  emulation  of  producing  every  thing,” 
which  the  venerable  Thiers  says  is  possessed  by  all  intelligent 
and  free  nations. 

" What,  then,”  says  he,  " are  the  nations  which  have  sought 
to  develop  among  themselves  a national  labor  ? ” 

" They  are  the  nations  which  are  intelligent  and  free.  When 
the  foreigner  brings  them  a product,  after  they  have  found  it  ser- 
viceable, they  desire  to  undertake  it.  The  nations  which  do  not 
have  this  desire  are  the  indolent  nations  of  the  East ; intelligent 


4 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  INDUSTRIES. 


and  free  nations  seek  to  appropriate  for  themselves  the  products 
brought  to  them  by  foreign  nations.” 

While  the  proposition  of  the  importance  of  a diversified  native 
industry,  in  the  abstract,  is  generally  accepted,  the  favors  which 
special  industries  demand  from  national  legislation  are  frequently 
the  subject  of  condemnation.  We  have  seen  quite  recently  the 
copper,  the  iron,  the  steel,  the  woollen,  the  salt  industries,  each 
reproached  for  the  special  consideration  which  they  have  invoked 
in  legislation.  Appearing  before  you  as  the  representative  of  a 
special  industry,  I offer  the  apology  for  my  position,  and  find 
the  guiding  thread  for  my  remarks,  in  the  subject  to  which  I now 
beg  your  attention, — The  Solidarity  of  the  Industries , as  Illus- 
trated by  the  Relations  of  the  Woollen  Manufacture . An  emi- 
nent liberal  statesman,  who  now  occupies  a place  in  the  new 
government  of  France,  Jules  Simon,  closes  a recent  free-trade 
speech  in  the  Legislative  Assembly  by  the  transcendental  remark, 
" All  the  liberties  are  sisters  : if  we  have  liberty  of  trade,  we  shall 
have  all  the  others.”  This  remark  is  only  sentimental  nonsense, 
for  there  is  no  necessary  relation,  except  in  words,  between  free 
trade  and  free  government ; but,  slightly  changed,  it  expresses 
what  I mean  by  the  solidarity  of  industries.  All  the  industries 
are  sisters:  if  we  have  one , we  shall  have  all  the  others. 

Let  me  at  the  outset  exclude  the  inference  that  the  woollen 
manufacture  is  not  of  itself,  and  independently  of  its  relations 
to  other  interests,  of  the  highest  national  importance.  A manu- 
facture whose  direct  annual  product  in  the  United  States  is,  by 
the  most  careful  estimates,  of  the  value  of  one  hundred  and 
seventy-five  million  dollars,  making  necessary  an  importation  of 
only  sixty-five  millions,  thus  supplying  nearly  three-quarters  of 
the  whole  consumption  of  woollen  and  worsted  goods  in  the 
country ; which  employs  directly  at  least  one  hundred  and 
twenty  thousand  operatives,  and  supports  twice  as  many  more ; 
which  consumes  the  fleeces  of  thirty-five  million  sheep ; which 
supplies  with  cheap  and  sound  clothing  the  great  mass  of  the 
people,  furnishing  nearly  all  the  cassimeres,  tricots,  and  cheviots, 
for  business  suits  ; the  beavers,  moscows,  and  cloakings,  for 
outer  garments  ; the  knit  goods  for  under-clothing,  and  the  flan- 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  INDUSTRIES. 


5 


nels  and  blankets  for  bed-coverings  ; which  furnishes  all  the 
ingrain  carpets  consumed  here,  produced  from  twice  the  number 
of  looms  that  are  in  England,  making  the  American  working- 
man’s  parlor  and  bedroom  the  most  cheerful  and  attractive  that 
labor  ever  found  for  repose ; a manufacture  which  supplies  all 
our  delaines,  the  most  largely  consumed  of  the  cheaper  fabrics 
for  woman’s  wear ; which  is  daily  producing  new  fabrics  for 
female  attire,  such  as  worsted  poplins,  serges,  cloakings,  printed 
cashmeres,  alpaca  and  mohair  lustres  ; a manufacture  which  fur- 
nishes lastings  for  our  shoes,  enough  for  thirty  thousand  a week 
in  a single  establishment,  reducing  the  price  of  the  foreign  arti- 
cle in  two  years  from  $1.10  to  66  cents  a yard;  which  supplies 
for  our  furniture  all-wool  and  union  damasks,  silk  cotelines  and 
reps  of  tasteful  designs  and  beautiful  colors ; an  industry  which 
has  torn  down  the  British  bunting,  which  has  so  long  disgraced 
our  national  ships,  and  has  run  up  a real  American  flag  made  of 
our  own  wools  and  in  our  own  mills,  — a flag  which  means  not 
merely  political,  but  industrial  independence ; a manufacture 
which  in  the  last  five  years  has  made  more  progress  than  in  any 
twenty  years  before,  and  more  than  any  other  branch  of  textile 
industry  has  done,  and  which  by  its  own  grand  exhibition  in  this 
hall  last  year  won  the  reluctant  admiration  of  your  shrewd  im- 
porters, and  the  generous  admiration  of  a diplomatic  representa- 
tive of  Great  Britain,  — an  industry  like  this,  I say,  has  claims 
of  itself  alone  for  grateful  appreciation  by  the  American  people, 
and  for  vigorous  defence  by  American  legislators. 

But  I must  hasten  to  a consideration  of  the  indirect  and  less 
obvious  influences  of  the  woollen  industry.  And  I must  be 
permitted  to  go  beyond  our  own  country  and  the  present  time 
for  my  illustrations.  Let  me  first  show  the  relations  of  the 
wool  manufacture  to  agriculture. 

The  woollen  manufacture  works  up  a fibre  which  was  in  prim- 
itive times,  and  is  again  becoming  in  quite  recent  times,  the 
material  of  the  first  necessity  for  the  clothing  of  man.  This 
fibre  outranks  all  others,  — first,  because  it  is  made  more  per- 
fect than  any  other,  through  the  chemical  elaborations  of  an 
animal  of  high  organization,  thus  surpassing  silk,  which  is  de- 


6 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  INDUSTRIES. 


rived  from  an  animal  of  a lower  organic  structure.  Again,  its 
specific  gravity  being  the  least  of  all  fibrous  substances,  its 
tissues  are  the  lightest,  warmest,  and  most  healthful.  And, 
finally,  this  material,  provided  in  some  varieties  with  a struct- 
ure which  enables  the  fibres  to  be  laced  and  intermingled,  by  the 
process  of  fulling,  into  fabrics  distinguished  for  their  warmth 
and  softness,  in  other  varieties  has  a lustre  which  assimilates  its 
tissues  to  those  of  silk ; and,  like  silk,  and  unlike  cotton  and 
flax,  it  receives  and  permanently  retains  every  tincture  and  every 
tone  and  hue  which  the  art  of  the  dyer  can  produce.  The 
industrial  application  in  primitive  times  of  this  marvellous  mate- 
rial to  clothing  for  man,  in  lieu  of  the  skins  of  wild  beasts, 
demanded  the  substitution  of  the  pastoral  system  for  that  of  the 
chase,  and  marked  the  first  step  of  mankind  in  agriculture,  and 
consequently  in  the  way  of  civilization.  The  whole  direct 
benefit  to  agriculture  from  the  consumption  of  wool  in  manu- 
factured products  is  measured  by  the  annual  value  of  the  wool 
of  the  world,  which  is  estimated  by  M.  Moll,  chairman  of  the 
jury  on  wools  at  the  Paris  Exposition,  at  three  thousand  mil- 
lion francs,  or  $600,000,000.  The  estimates  of  Mr.  Lynch, 
approved  by  Mr.  Bond,  both  high  authorities,  place  the  total 
wool  clip  of  the  United  States,  in  1868,  at  one  hundred  and 
seventy-seven  million  pounds.  At  forty  cents  per  pound,  the 
direct  value  of  the  American  wool  manufacture  to  American 
agriculture  is  nearly  $71,000,000. 

The  direct  is  very  far  from  the  only  or  even  chief  benefit 
accruing  to  agriculture  from  the  woollen  industry.  The  Sheep, 
cultivated  in  primitive  times,  and  at  present  in  merely  pastoral 
countries  for  only  one  of  its  aptitudes,  that  of  producing  wool, 
is  found  to  have  a more  important  aptitude,  that  of  converting, 
in  the  shortest  possible  time,  vegetable  matter  into  the  most 
healthful  and  nutritious  flesh : and  in  countries  most  advanced 
in  agriculture  it  has  become  the  most  important  source  of  animal 
food.  Again,  wool,  unlike  tobacco,  the  cereals,  the  oleaginous 
seeds,  and  the  vegetable  textiles,  including  cotton,  can,  so  far 
as  is  known,  be  produced  and  exported  indefinitely  without 
creating  exhaustion  of  the  soil ; and  even  more  than  that,  sheep, 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  INDUSTRIES. 


7 


through  the  peculiar  nutritiousness  of  their  manure,  and  the 
facility  with  which  it  is  distributed,  are  found  to  be  the  most 
economical  and  certain  means  of  solving  the  highest  problem  in 
agriculture,  — that  of  constantly  renewing  the  productiveness  of 
the  land.  Their  manure  is  more  valuable  than  that  of  cattle, 
because  they  digest  better ; they  cut  their  food  finer  and  chew 
it  better.  They  void  less  vegetable  fibre,  and  their  excrements 
are  more  converted  into  soluble  matter.  " One  thousand  sheep, 
folded  on  an  acre  of  ground  one  day,  would  manure  it  sufficiently 
to  feed  one  thousand  and  one  sheep.  So  that  by  this  process,  land 
which,  the  first  year,  can  feed  only  one  thousand  sheep,  may,  the 
next  year,  as  a result  of  their  own  droppings,  feed  thirteen  hun- 
dred and  sixty-five.” 

So  said  Anderson,  more  than  forty  years  ago ; and  Sprengel 
allows  that  the  manure  of  fourteen  hundred  sheep,  for  one  day, 
is  equal  to  manuring  highly  one  acre  of  land,  which  is  about 
four  sheep  per  year.  Mr.  Mechi,  a still  more  recent  authority, 
estimates  that  fifteen  hundred  sheep  folded  on  an  acre  of  land 
for  twenty-four  hours,  or  one  hundred  sheep  for  fifteen  days, 
would  manure  the  land  sufficiently  to  carry  it  through  four 
years’  rotation. 

Permit  me  now  to  present  in  more  detail  some  illustrations 
of  the  relations  of  the  woollen  industry  to  agriculture.  I need 
not  say  that  these  relations  are  reciprocal.  Action  and  reaction 
are  equal  in  the  moral  as  well  as  in  the  physical  world.  I have 
elsewhere  shown  the  dependence  of  the  manufacturers  of  each 
nation  upon  the  wool-growers  of  their  own  country,  and  that 
the  characteristic  features  of  the  manufactures  of  different  na- 
tions have  been  impressed  by  the  peculiar  condition  of  their 
agriculture.  I present  the  same  picture,  only  with  the  point  of 
view  reversed.  Manufactures  instead  of  agriculture  now  occupy 
the  foreground ; and  the  latter,  being  in  distant  perspective,  are 
made  to  appear  subordinate  to  the  latter. 

The  country  where  the  woollen  industry  has  had  the  longest 
standing,  and  the  most  complete  development,  naturally  presents 
the  most  complete  example  of  the  interdependence  upon  which  I 
insist.  England,  from  a very  early  period,  has  produced  sheep 


8 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  INDUSTRIES. 


of  two  distinctly  marked  classes.  The  one  class,  thriving  upon 
the  dry  uplands,  produced  a short,  comparatively  fine  wool, 
adapted  solely  for  making  fulled  cloths.  Of  this  class  the 
original  Southdown  was  a type.  This  wool  supplied  the  cloth 
manufactory  established  at  Winchester  in  the  time  of  the  Ro- 
mans. The  other  class  of  sheep,  of  greater  size,  flourishing 
upon  the  rich,  moist  plains,  produced  wool  characterized  by 
greater  length,  strength,  and  lustre,  and  its  moderate  felting 
properties.  This  wool,  fitted  for  making  serges  and  other  stuff 
fabrics,  adapted  especially  for  female  wear,  was  called  combing 
wool,  from  the  instrument  used  to  make  the  fibres  straight  and 
parallel,  preparatory  to  spinning.  Until  about  the  time  of  Eliz- 
abeth, England  herself,  worked  up,  the  greater  portion  of  her 
short  wools  into  cloths ; but  exported  nearly  all  her  combing 
wools,  far  the  most  valuable  of  her  agricultural  products,  which 
were  made  up  into  says  and  serges,  by  the  workmen  of  the  Low 
Countries.  In  the  time  of  Elizabeth,  the  persecutions  of  the 
Duke  of  Alva  drove  the  say  weavers,  skilled  in  working  up  the 
combing  wools,  from  the  Netherlands  into  England.  The 
worsted  manufacture,  or  that  of  the  combing  wools,  was  thus 
engrafted  upon  the  industry  of  England,  and  prepared  the  way 
for  the  consumption  of  all  her  wools  upon  her  own  soil.  The 
domestic  consumption  of  all  her  wools  was  made  a national 
necessity  by  stringent  laws  prohibiting  the  exportation  of  wool, 
which  were  in  force  from  1660  to  1825.  The  prohibition  of 
exportation  was  especially  efficacious  in  developing  the  worsted 
industry,  as  it  compelled  the  manufacture  at  home  of  the  comb- 
ing wools  formerly  exported.  The  number  of  sheep  during  this 
period  was  nearly  trebled,  and  the  production  of  wool  in  each 
animal  was  doubled.  As  the  worsted  industry  became  devel- 
oped, and  agriculture  became  more  prosperous,  from  the  home 
markets  opened  for  its  products,  the  woollen  industry  and  agri- 
culture continued  to  react  upon  each  other ; the  wool  manufac- 
ture making  increased  demands  for  combing  wool,  or  that 
produced  by  the  heaviest  sheep,  and  agriculture  taking  a direc- 
tion to  supply  this  demand. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  artificial  or  turnip  husbandry  was  intro- 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  INDUSTRIES. 


9 


duced  by  William  of  Orange,  and  the  means  were  provided  for 
trebling  the  number  of  sheep  which  an  acre  of  land  could  sup- 
port. The  results  at  the  present  time  to  the  English  woollen 
manufacture  are,  that  the  worsted  manufacture  far  surpasses 
the  clothing- wool  manufacture,  the  two  together  supporting  a 
population  of  over  a million ; and  the  towns  which  have  been 
the  centres  of  the  worsted  manufacture  have  made  a more  rapid 
progress  than  any  in  Great*  Britain,  Bradford  having  increased 
her  population  90,000  in  fifty  years.  The  result  of  this  recip- 
rocal action  to  the  agriculture  of  England  is  a genuine  trans- 
formation, of  external  character  at  least,  in  the  English  races 
of  sheep.  The  production  of  combing  wool,  the  kind  in  greatest 
demand,  was  secured  by  breeding  sheep  which  would  attain  the 
utmost  possible  weight  of  mutton,  which  could  be  fed  to  their 
utmost  capacity,  and  would  produce  the  utmost  amount  of 
manure.  The  merino  sheep,  although  introduced  into  England 
at  about  the  same  time  as  into  Germany  and  France,  which 
they  have  so  greatly  enriched ; and  although  their  culture  was 
encouraged  by  the  King  and  the  first  noblemen  of  the  realm, 
were  finally  wholly  discarded.  The  mutton  sheep  is  at  this 
moment  not  only  the  chief  animal  product  of  England,  but  it  is 
what  it  was  declared  to  be  long  ago,  " the  sheet-anchor  of  Eng- 
lish agriculture.”  It  is  the  chief  animal  product  of  Great 
Britain.  The  statistics  of  domestic  animals,  published  by  the 
Boyal  Agricultural  Society,  show  that  Great  Britain  had,  in 
1868,  30,711,396  sheep,  5,423,981  cattle,  and  2,308,539  pigs. 
The  sheep  is  literally  the  basis  of  English  husbandry.  The 
agriculture  of  England,  as  a whole,  is  very  simple.  Four 
crops,  in  regular  rotation  and  mainly  in  the  same  order,  consti- 
tute her  great  staples.  Turnips,  barley,  grass,  and  wheat,  are 
said  to  be  the  four  magical  words  at  which  the  earth  unlocks 
her  treasures  to  the  British  farmer.  The  four  field,  or  four  shift 
system,  which  pervades  the  greater  part  of  the  kingdom,  consists 
of  this  succession.  The  profit  is  in  the  barley  and  wheat  alone ; 
the  turnips  and  grass  serve  mainly  to  feed  the  sheep,  which 
furnish  mutton  and  wool  to  support  them  in  their  most  impor- 
tant function,  that  of  manuring  the  turnip  field  upon  which  they 

2 


10 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  INDUSTRIES. 


are  folded,  for  the  four  years’  rotation.  It  is  this  function  which 
I wish  to  bring  into  special  prominence.  Recent  agricultural 
writers  in  England  affirm  this  to  be  the  main  object  of  English 
sheep  husbandry.  Professor  Coleman,  of  the  Agricultural  Col- 
lege of  Cirencester,  in  a paper  recently  read  before  the  Royal 
Agricultural  Society,  on  the  breeding  and  feeding  of  sheep, 
says  : " It  is  not  difficult  to  show  that  sheep  alone,  apart  from 
their  influence  on  the  corn  crops,  will  not  pay  a living  profit,  after 
all  the  expenses  of  growing  the  crops  are  considered.”  Other 
practical  writers  for  the  same  journal  declare  that  there  is  no 
profit  in  growing  sheep  in  England  simply  for  their  mutton  and 
wool,  but  that  the  culture  of  sheep  is  still  an  indispensable  ne- 
cessity, as  there  is  no  other  means  of  keeping  up  the  land. 

Passing  away  from  England,  I observe  that  the  highest  author- 
ities in  France  inculcate  the  same  lesson.  The  most  eminent 
of  French  practical  statesmen,  M.  Thiers,  in  his  great  discourse 
on  the  protective  question,  delivered  in  the  Legislative  Assembly 
in  January  last,  demands  protective  duties  upon  the  wool  of 
France ; as  it  is  threatened  that  the  fine  sheep,  unprotected 
through  duties  on  wool,  must  disappear  from  the  soil  of  France, 
in  consequence  of  competition  from  the  southern  hemisphere. 
He  says  : " Upon  four-fifths  of  the  territory,  where  the  soil  is 
stony,  and  only  fine  grasses  abound,  the  fine  sheep  alone  can 
convert  this  grass  into  flesh  and  manure.”  After  giving  the 
facts  as  to  the  decline  of  the  ovine  population  of  France,  and 
its  enormous  increase  in  Australia  and  La  Plata,  he  continues  : 
" In  this  situation,  how  can  the  French  resist  the  foreign  com- 
petition ? The  agi'icultural  industry  of  France  cannot  dispense 
with  sheep.  The  facts  which  I have  given  you  ought  to  inspire 
you  with  the  most  serious  concern.”  The  same  lesson  is  taught 
by  the  best  practical  agriculturists  of  the  United  States.  Mr. 
Stilson,  president  of  the  Wisconsin  Wool-Growers’  Associa- 
tion, has  shown  that  his  flock  of  fifteen  hundred  sheep  has 
enabled  him  to  produce  eight  or  ten  more  bushels  of  wheat  to 
the  acre  than  is  grown  on  the  average  lands  of  Wisconsin, 
where  sheep  husbandry  is  not  an  auxiliary  to  wheat  farming. 
The  president  of  the  Ohio  Wool-Growers’  Association,  Mr. 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  INDUSTRIES. 


11 


Stevens,  whom  I had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  this  summer,  at 
the  Indianapolis  Exposition,  assured  me  that  he  could  see  no 
means  of  reclaiming  the  rapidly  deteriorating  lands  of  Ohio 
except  by  the  restorative  influence  of  sheep  husbandry.  We 
have  seen  lands  in  certain  portions  of  the  West  producing  wheat 
so  abundantly  as  to  compel  the  opening  of  railroad  lines  for 
the  single  purpose  of  transporting  their  teeming  harvests  ; and 
have  also  seen,  in  our  own  time,  these  very  lands  so  rapidly 
exhausted,  that  the  rails  have  been  torn  up  for  want  of  traffic. 
Such  facts  apprise  us  that  there  is  no  security  for  continued 
fruitfulness,  even  in  our  most  fertile  States,  but  in  a more  prov- 
ident agriculture.  What  is  taken  from  the  land  must  be  restored. 
Science  gives  us  but  little  encouragement  in  the  promise  of 
cheap  imported  or  artificial  manures.  The  guano  beds  are 
being  rapidly  exhausted.  The  experiments  of  Messrs.  Lawes 
and  Gilbert,  at  Kothamsted,  show  that  the  application  to 
the  land  of  sewage  from  the  cities,  from  which  so  much  was 
expected,  is  a failure.  The  brilliant  experiments  of  Vila,  in 
France,  made  to  exhibit  the  applicability  of  artificial  manures 
in  place  of  animal  manures,  in  countries  like  France,  where 
the  land  is  so  much  divided  as  not  to  permit  the  profitable  cult- 
ure of  animals,  lead  to  no  practical  results,  because  no  econom- 
ical sources  of  artificial  nitrates,  phosphates,  or  potash,  have 
been  or  are  likely  to  be  discovered.  We  see,  but  as  through 
grated  windows,  exhaustless  but  practically  inaccessible  stores 
of  potash  in  the  granite  rocks  ; of  phosphates  in  beds  of  apatite  ; 
and  of  nitrogen  in  the  atmosphere,  or  in  the  far-off  rainless 
plains  of  Chili.  Has  not  Providence  locked  up  these  treasures, 
or  removed  them  from  our  reach,  to  compel  man,  for  his  highest 
physical  good,  to  cultivate  the  animal  which  best  supplies  the 
primal  necessities,  — food,  clothing,  and  the  continued  enrich- 
ment of  the  earth?  The  blessing,  in  the  olden  time,  was  given 
to  him  who  " brought  of  the  firstlings  of  his  flock,”  for  " the 
Lord  had  respect  unto  Abel  and  to  his  offering.” 

There  are  other  relations  of  the  woollen  industry  to  agriculture, 
much  less  broad  in  their  scope,  but  so  interesting  a^id  illustrative 
that  I cannot  pass  them  by.  The  first  which  I allude  to,  because 


12 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  INDUSTRIES. 


connected  with  the  topic  which  we  have  just  considered,  is  the 
achievement  which  chemical  science  has  recently  effected  in  sav- 
ing the  potash  contained  in  the  yolk  of  fleeces  in  such  a form 
that  it  may  be  returned  to  the  soil  or  used  in  the  arts.  It  is 
well  known  that  sheep  draw  from  the  land  upon  which  they 
graze  a considerable  quantity  of  potash,  which,  after  circulating 
in  the  blood,  is  excreted  from  the  skin  with  the  sweat,  in  combi- 
nation with  which  it  is  deposited  in  the  wool.  The  French 
chemists  MM.  Maumonti  and  Rogelet  have  established  quite  re- 
cently at  the  great  seats  of  the  woollen  manufacture  in  France, 
as  at  Rheims  and  Elbeuf,  factories  for  putting  the  new  industry 
which  they  have  created  into  practical  operation.  They  induce 
the  woollen  manufacturers  to  preserve  and  sell  to  them  the  solutions 
of  yolk  obtained  by  the  washing  of  the  raw  fleeces  in  cold  water, 
and  pay  such  a price  as  encourages  the  manufacturers  to  wash 
their  wool  methodically,  so  as  to  enrich  the  same  water  with  the 
yolk  of  a number  of  fleeces.  These  scourings  the  chemists  carry 
to  their  factory,  and  then  boil  them  down  to  a dry,  carbonaceous 
residuum.  The  alkaline  salts  remain  in  the  charred  residuum, 
and  are  extracted  by  lixiviation  with  water.  The  most  impor- 
tant of  the  alkalies  obtained  is  potash,  which  is  recovered  in  a 
state  of  great  purity.  It  is  computed  that  if  the  fleeces  of  all  the 
sheep  of  France,  estimated  at  forty-seven  millions,  were  subjected 
to  the  new  treatment,  France  would  derive  from  this  source 
alone  all  the  potash  she  requires  in  the  arts,  enough  to  make 
about  twelve  thousand  tons  of  commercial  carbonate  of  potash, 
convertible  into  seventeen  thousand  five  hundred  tons  of  salt- 
petre, which  would  charge  eighteen  hundred  and  seventy  million 
cartridges.  So  that  the  inoffensive  sheep,  the  emblem  of  peace, 
can  be  made  to  supply  the  chief  muniment  of  war.  The  obvious 
lesson  from  these  facts,  to  the  sheep  farmer,  is  to  wash  his  fleeces 
at  home,  in  such  a manner  that  the  wash  water,  so  rich  in  pot- 
ash, may  be  distributed  upon  the  land  as  liquid  manure. 

I have  already  adverted  to  the  influence  of  the  wool  manufact  - 
ure  of  England  in  developing  the  breeds  of  long-woolled  sheep  in 
that  country.^  Facts  illustrative  of  the  influence  of  manufacture 
upon  sheep  husbandry  are  furnished  by  all  manufacturing  nations. 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  INDUSTRIES. 


13 


In  the  indolent  nations  of  the  East,  manufacturers  adapt  them- 
selves to  the  raw  material  which  has  been  furnished  for  ages. 
The  beautiful  Turkish  carpets  of  Asia  Minor  are  produced  now, 
as  they  doubtless  were  in  the  time  of  the  Crusades,  from  coarse 
wool  grown  upon  the  Barbarous  broad-tailed  sheep,  which  is 
still  precisely  the  same  as  those  which  formed  the  flocks  watched 
by  the  shepherds  of  the  Bible,  and  to  which  belonged  the  Paschal 
lamb.  Nations  of  higher  civilization  are  constantly  varying 
their  fabric  and  their  sheep  husbandry. 

The  Spanish  merino,  which  I conceive  to  be  a relic  of  Greek 
and  Roman  civilization  preserved  in  the  mountains  of  Andalusia 
from  the  barbarians  who  swept  over  most  of  the  Roman  posses- 
sions, was  introduced  about  a century  ago  into  all  the  manufact- 
uring nations  of  Europe.  When  introduced  into  France,  at 
the  sheep-folds  of  Rambouillet,  it  produced  a short  clothing  wool. 
Let  me,  before  describing  the  important  change  which  subse- 
quently took  place,  advert  for  a moment  to  a zoological  prin- 
ciple. 

A beautiful  law  of  nature  has  been  brought  into  view  by  the 
studies  of  modern  zoology,  that,  while  the  primary  and  specific 
characters,  determined  by  the  forms  of  the  skeleton,  are  abso- 
lutely fixed,  and  transmit  themselves  infallibly  by  generation,  the 
secondary  or  accessory  forms  of  animals,  such  as  the  fleshy  cov- 
ering, hair,  and  fleece,  the  only  characters  which  man  has  in  view 
in  cultivating  the  domestic  animals,  can  be  modified  indefinitely  by 
culture.  For  example,  the  sheep  in  a state  of  nature  is  provided 
with  two  kinds  of  covering.  The  outer  or  principal  covering  is 
a coarse  hair.  Beneath  this  hair,  and  concealed  by  it,  is  a short, 
fine  down.  It  is  this  down,  which,  by  the  culture  of  sheep  in  a 
state  of  domestication,  has  become  the  woolly  fleece,  and  which 
is  again  susceptible  of  being  modified  by  the  climate  in  which 
it  is  developed,  or  the  care  of  which  it  is  the  object.  This 
modification  of  the  secondary  characters  of  animals  is  sometimes 
the  result  of  high  agricultural  skill,  or,  to  use  the  more  accurate 
modern  term,  zootechnic  skill,  directed  to  a specific  object,  as  in 
the  labors  of  Bakewell  and  Elman,  in  England,  and  of  Ham- 
mond, in  Vermont.  But  the  modification  generally  takes  place 
insensibly. 


14 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  INDUSTRIES. 


One  of  the  most  important  of  these  insensible  influences  is 
that  which  the  vrool  manufacture  exerts  in  its  demand  for  the 
material  for  its  fabrics.  The  merino,  as  I have  observed,  when 
introduced  into  France  was  a small,  short- woolled  sheep.  The 
higher  feeding  naturally  given  to  the  precious  animals  necessarily 
tended  to  increase  the  size,  and  at  the  same  time  to  lengthen  the 
fibre,  it  being  the  fixed  law  that  woolly  fibre  is  increased  in 
length  but  not  in  diameter  by  increased  nourishment.  French 
industry,  with  that  creative  genius  which  is  its  highest  attribute, 
saw  in  the  newly  acquired  fibre  a means  for  creating  new,  soft 
fabrics  for  female  wear,  in  place  of  the  coarse  and  stiff  serges 
which  were  the  characteristic  stuffs  of  the  former  country.  Here 
was  a fresh  raw  material  for  the  novelties  in  dress  which  the 
world  of  fashion  is  perpetually  calling  upon  France  to  supply. 
Remember  that  before  the  present  century  no  female  stuffs  were 
made  of  fine  wool.  In  1801,  Dauphinot  Pallotan  invented  the 
most  beautiful  of  all  woollen  tissues,  the  French  merino , at  pres- 
ent, or  recently,  the  chief  product  of  Rheims  and  its  fifty  thou- 
sand workmen,  and  the  sole  product  of  a single  establishment  at 
Cateau,  with  ten  thousand  workmen.  In  1826,  M.  Jourdain  in- 
vented all-wool  mousselines  de  laines  for  printing,  the  material 
being  long  merino  fleece.  In  1838,  he  created  challis , a fabric 
with  a warp  of  silk  organzine  and  a weft  of  merino  wool.  Since 
then  the  dress  fabrics  of  which  merino  wool  forms  the  chief  com- 
ponent material  have  been  infinitely  varied  to  meet  the  insatiable 
demands  of  fashion  for  change.  The  Exposition  of  1867  demon- 
strated that  of  all  the  fabrics  which  the  art  of  man  has  produced, 
there  are  none  which  bear  comparison  in  tastefulness,  variety, 
and  perfection  of  workmanship,  with  the  French  dress  tissues  of 
merino  wool. 

The  demands  of  the  wool  industry  of  France  gradually  and 
insensibly  converted  the  fibre  of  her  merinos  into  a combing  wool. 
The  wool  could  not  be  made  to  acquire  the  length  required  for 
combing  without  increasing  the  size  of  the  animal.  The  merinos 
of  France  are  the  largest  animals  of  their  race  in  the  world. 
They  are  said  to  be,  as  compared  with  the  American  merino, 
bred  for  a different  purpose,  w what  the  great,  pampered  short- 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  INDUSTRIES. 


15 


horn  of  England  is  to  the  little,  hardy,  black  cattle  of  the  Scotch 
Highlands.”  The  influence  of  French  manufacturers  has  ex- 
tended even  to  the  sheep  husbandry  of  the  southern  hemisphere. 
As  the  fine  combing- wool  industry  of  France  was  extended,  her 
own  wools  became  insufficient  to  supply  her  looms.  Regenera- 
tors of  the  Rambouillet  stock  were  largely  introduced  into  Aus- 
tralia, originally  producing  only  clothing  wools.  The  wools  of 
Australia  have  becomelengthened  in  their  fibre,  and  the  exports 
of  Australia,  according  to  M.  Moll,  are  now  principally  destined 
for  the  combing-wool  industry. 

The  peculiar  necessities  of  the  French  woollen  industry  have 
led  to  one  of  the  most  remarkable  zootechnic  achievements  — 
and  one  which  could  not  have  been  effected  without  the  auspices 
of  the  manufacturer, — the  creation  of  a new  race  of  sheep  and 
of  an  absolutely  new  fibre.  The  enormous  prices  of  Cashmere 
shawls  stimulated  the  French  manufacturers  in  the  early  part  of 
this  century  to  emulate  the  Indian  tissues.  They  succeeded  per- 
fectly in  the  fabrication.  They  induced,  also,  the  importation 
of  a large  number  of  Cashmere  goats,  the  animals  furnishing 
down  from  which  the  Indian  shawls  are  fabricated.  It  was 
found,  however,  that  the  goats  could  not  be  cultivated  with 
profit,  as  each  animal  produced  only  three  or  four  ounces  of 
down.  In  1828,  there  was  accidentally  produced  at  the  farm  of 
Mauchamp,  cultivated  by  M.  Graux,  a ram  of  the  merino  race, 
which  besides  other  peculiarities  or  monstrosities  was  provided 
with  a wool  remarkable  for  its  softness,  and  above  all  for  its 
lustre,  which  resembled  that  of  silk.  By  a system  of  careful 
breeding,  M.  Graux  succeeded  in  obtaining  a small  flock  of  ani- 
mals from  this  stock  whose  wool  was  perfectly  silky.  He  at 
first  met  with  but  little  encouragement.  The  ordinary  manu- 
facturers, to  whom  he  offered  his  wool,  complained  that  it  was  so 
pliant  and  slippery  that  nothing  could  be  done  with  it.  Fortu- 
nately the  silky  wool  attracted  the  attention  of  M.  Davin,  a wool 
manufacturer  familiar  with  the  fabrication  of  the  Cashmere  fibre, 
and  distinguished  for  his  zeal  and  skill  in  introducing  new  mate- 
rial into  the  textile  arts.  Taking  the  silky  wool  in  hand,  he 
succeeded  in  making  magnificent  stuffs  which  won  the  admiration 


16 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  INDUSTRIES. 


of  connoisseurs.  Merinos,  mousselines,  satins  of  China,  and 
shawls,  made  of  this  material,  equalled,  if  they  did  not  surpass, 
analogous  products  made  of  the  finest  Cashmere  yarns.  " The 
silky  wool,”  says  a report  of  the  Imperial  Society  of  Acclima- 
tion, "is  destined  to  replace  completely  in  our  industry  the 
Cashmere  wool  which  comes  from  Thibet.  It  is  fully  as  brilliant 
as  Cashmere  and  as  soft,  while  it  costs  less  as  a raw  material,  and 
requires  less  manipulation  to  be  transformed  to  yarn.” 

The  Mauchamp  or  silk-woolled  race  of  sheep  is  now  definitely 
established.  I need  not  say  that  this  beautiful  creation  could 
not  have  been  effected  in  a country  where  the  arts  were  not 
already  developed  to  apply  it. 

The  merino  sheep,  introduced  into  Germany  about  the  same 
time  as  into  France,  received  an  improvement  in  an  opposite 
direction.  This  direction  was  mainly  given  by  the  demands  of 
the  German  wool  manufacture,  though  partially  due  to  a dry 
climate  and  unfruitful  soil.  Germany  was  already  provided 
with  sheep  producing  coarse  clothing  wool.  They  continued  to 
suffice  for  the  clothing  of  the  great  mass  of  the  people,  who  were 
not  elevated  and  wealthy  as  they  have  since  become  through  the 
influence  of  the  protective  Zollverein,  nor  educated,  as  they  have 
since  been  in  Prussia,  through  the  wise  counsels  of  the  immortal 
Humboldt.  The  early  woollen  manufacture  of  Germany  was 
directed  to  the  supply  of  cloths  for  the  more  wealthy  classes. 
The  combing-wool  industry  had  been  scarcely  attempted.  The 
first  demand  of  the  manufacture,  therefore,  was  for  fine  clothing 
wools.  The  German  flock-masters,  being  generally  wealthy 
landholders,  possessed  the  ability  and  intelligence  to  respond  to 
this  demand.  The  ideal  in  sheep  husbandry  became  the  pro- 
duction of  the  finest  possible  fibre.  The  ideal  has  been  com- 
pletely attained.  The  characteristic  wools  of  Germany,  those 
of  the  Electoral  race,  are  much  finer  than  those  produced  from 
the  original  Spanish  stock  ; and  the  animals  are  much,  smaller  in 
size,  while  the  fleeces  are  correspondingly  small.  The  extremely 
fine  fibre,  designated  in  Germany  as  noble  wool , is  marked  by 
the  distinctness  and  great  number  of  its  curves  or  wrinkles. 
The  wools  are  distinguished  not  only  for  their  fineness,  but  the 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  INDUSTRIES. 


IT 


extreme  shortness  of  their  staple,  which  give  the  felting  qualities 
essential  for  the  fine  broadcloths  and  doeskins,  for  which  German 
manufactures  are  so  celebrated.  These  wools  bear  the  highest 
price  of  any  known,  although  the  profitableness  of  their  culture 
exclusively  is  questioned  even  in  Germany.  Still  they  form  a 
leading  source  of  German  wealth.  Eighteen  per  cent,  of  all 
the  exports  of  wealthy  Prussia  consists  of  woollen  manufactures, 
and  those  principally  fine  cloths.  Thus  we  have  a manufactur- 
ing industry  acting  directly  upon  agriculture;  this  reacting  in 
its  turn  upon  manufactures,  until  a distinct  physiognomy  is  im- 
pressed upon  the  German  national  fabric,  and  the  chief  agricul- 
tural distinction  of  Germany  has  become  that  of  possessing  the 
most  perfect  fine-wool  husbandry  of  the  world. 

Results  quite  different,  but  no  less  distinctive,  have  been 
effected  by  the  influence  of  the  woollen  manufacture  in  the 
United  States.  Sheep  husbandry  in  this  country  has  been 
hitherto  pursued  exclusively  with  a view  to  the  production  of 
wool,  mutton  being  a mere  incident,  and  manure  hardly  a 
matter  of  consideration.  The  character  of  our  sheep  husbandry 
has,  therefore,  been  wholly  determined  by  the  demand  of  manu- 
facture. The  American  manufacturers  have  found  it  more 
profitable  to  run  their  mills  upon  the  classes  of  goods  in  demand 
by  the  mass  of  our  people.  The  masses  of  American  consumers, 
although  not  demanding  superfine  cloths,  require  goods  of  a 
better  and  finer  class  than  would  content  the  masses  of  European 
population.  Sound  and  sightly  cloths,  but  of  medium  fine- 
ness, are  in  the  greatest  demand.  Medium  wools,  produced  by 
merino  grades,  of  considerable  length  of  fibre,  are  well  suited 
to  the  production  of  flannels  and  fancy  cassimeres,  our  principal 
products  in  the  clothing-wool  manufacture.  It  is  true  that  the 
fine  broadcloth  manufacture  was  attempted  under  the  fostering 
influence  of  the  protective  tariffs  of  1824  and  1828,  and  was  fur- 
ther extended  under  the  tariff  of  1842  ; and  the  culture  of  Saxony 
or  superfine  woolled  sheep  was  pursued  with  enthusiasm.  The 
horizontal  tariff  of  1846  destroyed  the  broadcloth  manufacture, 
and  at  the  same  time  swept  away  our  Saxony  sheep  or  merged 
them  into  coarser  flocks.  The  demand  for  broadcloth  wools 


18 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  INDUSTRIES. 


having  ceased,  the  American  breeders  of  merinos,  adapting 
themselves  to  the  wants  of  manufactures,  sought  to  produce  a 
coarser  and  longer  staple  than  had  been  in  request  at  an  earlier 
period.  They  have  produced,  through  these  influences,  a race  of 
sheep  designated  as  the  American  merino  and  now  recognized 
as  a distinctive  variety,  like  the  Saxon  merino  or  French  merino. 
The  most  complete  account  of  the  American  merino  is  the  elabo- 
rate paper  furnished  to  the  report  " On  Wool  and  Manufactures 
of  Wool,”  at  the  Paris  Exposition,  by  Dr.  Randall,  the  highest 
American  authority  on  sheep  husbandry,  and  no  less  favorably 
known  as  author  of  the  Life  of  Jefferson.  The  remarkable 
improvement  in  productions  of  wool,  effected  by  American  hus- 
bandry upon  the  original  Spanish  stock,  is  the  most  interesting 
fact  brought  out  in  this  excellent  paper.  From  facts  and  ex- 
periments in  scouring  which  he  details,  Dr.  Randall  says  : " It 
appears,  first,  that  prime  American  merinos  produced  more 
washed  wool,  in  1844-46,  than  was  produced  of  unwashed  wool 
by  the  original  stock  in  Spain,  at  their  palmiest  period ; second, 
that  prime  American  merinos  produce  about  as  much  scoured 
wool  now  as  they  did  of  washed  wool  in  1844-46,  and  nearly 
twice  as  much  as  the  picked  merino  flock  of  the  King  of  Great 
Britain  from  1798  to  1802.  They  undoubtedly  produce  twice 
as  much  scoured  wool  as  the  average  of  the  prime  Spanish  flocks 
of  that  period.”  By  breeding  to  produce  heavy  fleeces,  the  wool 
of  the  American  merino  has  become  elongated  so  as  to  make  it 
a true  combing  wool.  No  use  of  this  quality  has  been  made 
until  very  recently,  except  in  delaines,  a comparatively  low 
fabric.  The  American  Commissioner  at  the  Paris  Exposition,  in 
the  department  of  woollens,  who,  though  largely  interested  in 
manufactures,  had  at  that  time  but  little  practical  experience  in 
fabricating,  was  fascinated  by  the  magnificent  French  merino 
fabrics  at  the  Exposition.  Upon  his  return  to  this  country  his 
attention  was  drawn  to  a fleece  of  American  merino  wool,  which 
had  been  sent  from  Ohio  to  the  office  of  the  Association  which  I 
servfe,  to  illustrate  the  combing  qualities  of  the  American  staple. 
He  instantly  resolved  to  emulate  in  the  mill  of  which  he  had  the 
direction,  with  our  merino  combing  wools,  the  French  fabrics 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  INDUSTRIES, 


19 


which  he  had  admired  abroad.  Within  less  than  two  years  the 
resolution  has  been  crowned  with  complete  success  ; his  establish- 
ment has  achieved  several  entirely  new  dress  fabrics,  made  wholly 
of  native  fibre,  such  as  had  never  been  attempted  in  England, 
and  at  least  three  thousand  pounds  of  American  merino  clothing 
wool  are  consumed  per  week  in  this  new  fabrication.  This 
achievement  I regard  as  the  event  in  this  year’s  history  of  the 
woollen  industry  of  the  United  States.  Perhaps  I may  be  excused 
for  recalling  in  this  connection  an  intimation  which  I made  in  a 
published  address  five  years  ago  : " The  true  value  of  the  fleece 
of  the  American  merino  is  for  combing  purposes,  for  which  it 
has  a remarkable  analogy  with  that  of  France.  This  country  will 
never  know  the  inestimable  treasure  which  it  has  in  its  fleeces 
until  American  manufacturers  appropriate  them  to  fabricate  the 
soft  tissues  of  merinos,  thibets,  and  cashmeres,  to  which  France 
owes  the  splendor  of  the  industries  of  combing  wool  at  Paris, 
Rheims,  and  Roubaix.” 

The  relations  of  our  industry  with  agriculture  are  so  fascinating 
that  they  have  too  long  detained  me  from  the  most  important 
branch  of  my  subject,  — the  relations  of  the  wool  manufacture  to 
the  higher  arts  and  the  other  mechanical  industries.  As  the 
oldest  of  textile  arts,  the  w'oollen  industry  has  filled  the  pages 
of  history  with  illustrations  of  its  civilizing  influences.  Passing  by 
the  voyage  of  the  Argonauts  for  the  golden  fleece,  and  the  fruits 
of  that  expedition,  the  birth  of  the  arts  of  navigation  and  the 
origin  of  Phoenician  letters,  — a fable,  indeed,  but  one  teaching 
the  same  lesson  which  I would  inculcate  ; passing  by  Tyre,  en- 
riched by  the  commerce  of  its  murex-dyed  tissues  and  fleeces ; 
the  Italian  States,  Florence,  Yenice,  Pisa,  and  Genoa,  which 
were  the  first  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries  to  appropriate 
the  arts  which  the  Crusaders  brought  back  from  Asia,  and  who 
found  in  the  wToollen  manufacture  the  source  of  the  wealth  whose 
fruits  survive  in  the  "stones  of  Yenice,”  and  the  wonders  of 
Florentine  art,  for  Michel  Angelo’s  great  statue  of  David  was 
paid  for  by  the  wool- weavers’  guild ; passing  by  Flanders, 
where  the  growth  of  the  wool  manufacture  and  of  Flemish  art 
were  contemporaneous,  and  which  subsequently  became  the  cen- 


20 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  INDUSTRIES. 


tre  from  which  the  art  of  fabricating  woollens  spread  into  Eng- 
land, France,  and  Germany, — turning  aside  from  these  brilliant 
examples,  I would  point  you  to  a homely  and  familiar  illustration 
at  our  own  doors  of  the  indirect  influence  of  the  woollen  indus- 
try upon  the  sister  arts. 

Mr.  Benton  has  pointed  out  with  singular  felicity  the  succes- 
sive events  which  mark  out  the  routes  of  the  great  railroad  lines 
across  the  continent;  first  the  path  of  the  buffalo,  then  the  In- 
dian’s, then  the  trapper’s  trail,  then  the  emigrant’s  wagon  and 
dawning  civilization,  and  finally  the  railroad  train,  and  civiliza- 
tion accomplished.  Manufacturing  industry  has  been  established 
by  a similar  succession. 

Settlements  are  made  in  the  beginning  upon  our  water  courses. 
Water  power  is  first  applied  to  the  saw-mill;  then  comes  the 
grist-mill ; then  follows  the  woollen-mill : in  old  times  it  was 
the  fulling-mill.  The  fulling-mill  was,  and  the  woollen-mill  now 
is,  to  a matured  industry,  what  the  emigrant’s  wagon  is  to  the 
great  interior,  the  dawn  of  manufacturing  enterprise,  as  that  is 
of  permanent  settlement.  The  cotton,  the  machinery,  the  iron, 
the  silk,  the  paper  manufactures  follow  and  build  up  our  Lowells, 
Patersons,  and  Manchesters.  This  is  no  fancy  sketch.  I remem- 
ber the  time  when  the  Salmon  Falls  River,  watering  a district 
which  was  occupied  by  one  of  the  earliest  and  most  impor- 
tant settlements  in  New  England,  dating  back  to  1632,  had  no 
other  manufacturing  establishments  than  a saw-mill,  a grist-mill, 
and  a fulling-mill.  The  latter  disappeared,  and  was  succeeded 
in  1828  by  a well-appointed  woollen  factory.  Afterwards  came 
the  cotton-mills  of  Great  Falls ; and  the  Salmon  Falls  River 
moves  now  one  hundred  and  thirty-two  thousand  cotton  spindles 
and  fourteen  sets  of  woollen  machinery.  This  is  but  a type  of 
the  march  of  manufactures  everywhere  in  this  country.  The 
first  textile  manufacturing  establishment  in  Massachusetts  was  a 
fulling-mill,  built  at  Rowley,  near  Ipswich,  in  1643.  This  was 
the  pioneer  of  a textile  industry  in  Massachusetts,  which,  ac- 
cording to  the  Commonwealth  returns  in  1865,  amounted  to 
$144,730,679.  The  woollen-mills  in  the  North-west,  California, 
and  Oregon,  are  in  their  turn  the  pioneers  of  a diversified  in- 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OP  THE  INDUSTRIES. 


21 


dustry  in  the  newly  settled  States.  The  erection  of  a woollen 
mill  of  two  or  four  sets  seems  to  us  at  the  East  but  a trifling 
affair,  but  to  the  new  States  it  is  an  epoch,  the  dawn  of  manu- 
factures, which  all  experience  tells  us  will  expand  into  a largely 
diversified  industry  and  its  attendant  results,  a superior  civiliza- 
tion. The  historian,  Thiers,  chronicles  a more  insignificant 
event  than  the  building  of  a four-set  mill,  as  an  epoch  in  history. 
The  introduction  of  a little  manufacture  of  cloths,  at  Abbeville 
in  France,  by  Colbert,  is  recorded  as  a more  important  conquest 
than  that  of  his  master,  Louis  XIV.,  who  struck  down  the 
Spanish  power.  I have  mentioned  the  fulling-mill  as  really  the 
pioneer  of  the  textile  industry  in  this  country.  Few  have  a 
conception  of  the  very  brief  period  within  which  the  woollen 
industry  has  attained  its  present  development.  A hundred 
years  ago  in  England,  and  fifty  years  ago  in  this  country,  the 
woollen  manufacture,  as  it  now  is,  had  hardly  an  existence.  The 
spinning  and  weaving  of  wool  was  simply  a domestic  industry, 
power  being  used  only  in  the  fulling-mills.  Dyer,  despised  by 
Dr.  Johnson  as  poet,  because  his  subject,  the  Fleece,  partook 
of  "the  meanness  naturally  adhering  to  trade  and  manufac- 
tures,” but  now  regarded  as  a better  poet  than  the  great  critic, 
and  also  as  the  best  annalist  of  the  industry  of  his  time,  de- 
scribes the  manner  in  which  the  products  of  the  woollen  industry 
were  collected,  a century  or  more  ago,  for  British  commerce  : — 

“ Prom  little  tenements  by  wood  or  croft, 

Through  many  a slender  path,  how  sedulous, 

As  rills  to  river  broad,  they  speed  their  way 
To  public  roads. 

And  thence  explore, 

Through  every  navigable  wave,  the  sea, 

That  leaps  the  green  earth  ’round.” 

Some  of  our  leading  living  wool  manufacturers  were  apprenticed 
in  their  youth  to  clothiers,  or  the  workers  of  the  old  fulling-mill ; 
and  one  so  apprenticed,  from  whom  I recently  sought  reminis- 
cences of  the  early  manufacture,,  well  remembers  the  farmers  of 
Connecticut  trudging  miles  through  the  woods  with  rolls  of  cloth 


22 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  INDUSTRIES. 


upon  their  shoulders,  to  be  felted  and  dressed  in  the  fulling-mill. 
We  sometimes  regret  the  Arcadian  days,  when 

“ Maids  at  the  wheel,  the  weaver  at  the  loom, 

Sat  blithe  and  happy.” 

But  considering  the  matter  more  practically,  how  vast  an  im- 
provement upon  this  toilful  and  unproductive  industry  is  that  of 
the  present  time,  when  a single  establishment,  such  as  the  Wash- 
ington Mills,  of  Lawrence,  Massachusetts,  wdthits  hundred  sets, 
was  capable,  according  to  the  statement  of  its  late  lamented 
treasurer,  Mr.  Stetson,  by  working  day  and  night,  to  produce 
all  the  woollen  clothing  for  an  army  of  a million  men. 

Let  me  give  the  relations  of  the  woollen  manufacture  to  partic- 
ular textile  arts,  and  first  to  the  cotton  manufacture.  The  cotton 
manufacture  of  Great  Britain,  the  most  stupendous  phenomenon 
of  modern  industry,  was  the  natural  offshoot  of  the  woollen 
manufacture.  Through  the  woollen  trade,  mainly,  England  had 
become  a nation  of  spinners  and  weavers,  or  of  artisans  sub- 
sidiary to  them.  A national  taste  and  skill  had  been  developed 
in  the  textile  arts  by  the  manipulation  of  wool,  which  was 
readily  applicable  to  a kindred  fibre.  Many  of  the  inventions 
upon  which  the  cotton  manufacture  is  dependent,  such  as  the  in- 
vention of  the  fly-shuttle,  which  doubled  the  power  of  the  weaver 
and  made  necessary  the  subsequent  inventions  which  increased 
the  spinning  power,  were  contributed  directly  from  the  seats  of 
the  woollen  manufacture.  What  was  scarcely  less  important,  the 
commercial  connections  established  by  the  woollen  trade  gave 
to  the  cotton  manufacture,  when  completely  inaugurated  by  the 
inventions  of  Hargreaves,  Arkwright,  and  Compton,  a command 
of  foreign  markets  for  unlimited  exports  of  the  new  British  tex- 
tile. The  British  cotton  manufacture  is  as  truly  the  offspring 
of  the  woollen  industry  as  New  England  is  of  Old  England. 
This  may  be  called  the  most  important  incident  of  the  woollen 
industry;  for  in  giving  birth  to  that  of  cotton,  it  secured  to 
England,  from  the  fabrication . of  that  textile,  a profit  in  fifty 
years  of  one  thousand  million  pounds  sterling . Pursue  these 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  INDUSTRIES. 


23 


consequences  still  further,  and  we  have  the  cotton  gin  in  Amer- 
ica, the  growth  of  the  slave  power,  its  aggressions,  the  war  of 
the  rebellion,  and  emancipation  ! 

The  cotton  manufacture,  reaching  maturity,  discharged  its 
filial  debt  by  giving  an  unexpected  and  singular  development 
to  the  woollen  industry. 

Between  1830  and  1840,  cotton  became  an  important  auxiliary 
to  wool,  through  its  use  in  warps  for  woollen  or  worsted  filling 
in  the  fabrication  of  tissues  for  female  wear.  Many  varieties 
of  these  union  fabrics  are  classed  under  the  generic  name  of 
cotton  delaines.  This  fabric  was  first  introduced  into  France  in 
1833,  and  into  England  in  1834.  It  i§  practically  the  same  as 
a woollen  fabric,  the  warps  being  so  covered  with  wool  that  the 
presence  of  cotton  can  be  observed  only  by  the  closest  inspection. 
Its  cheapness,  durability,  and  sightliness,  when  printed,  make 
its  introduction  an  invaluable  boon  to  women  of  moderate  means. 
Not  less  than  sixty  thousand  yards  are  annually  manufactured  in 
this  country,  and  the  cheapness  and  excellence  of  the  American 
fabric  practically  excludes  its  foreign  rivals.  The  cotton  warps 
are  now  used  as  vehicles  to  extend  the  surface  of  wool  and 
worsted  mohair  and  alpaca  in  a countless  variety  of  dress  fabrics. 
The  wool  of  a single  sheep  may  be  extended  by  the  cotton  warp 
so  as  to  fabricate  672  yards  of  so-called  alpaca  fabrics,  enough 
for  fifty-six  dresses.  All  the  cheaper  fabrics  are  made  by  this 
wholly  modern  alliance  of  wool  and  cotton,  and  the  great  manu- 
facturing cities  of  Bradford,  in  England,  and  Roubaix,  in  France, 
are  chiefly  occupied  in  the  fabrication  of  these  cheap  tissues, 
whose  undoubted  fragility  is  rendered  less  objectionable  by  the 
fickleness  of  female  fashion. 

An  establishment  producing  fabrics  of  this  class  will  give  us 
the  best  illustration  of  the  manifold  and  important  relations  of 
the  woollen  industry  of  the  present  period.  I select  the  estab- 
lishment known  as  the  Pacific  Mills,  located  at  Lawrence,  Mas- 
sachusetts, because  it  is  the  oldest  and  largest  of  its  class.  This 
establishment  turns  out  an  annual  product  of  printed  delaines 
and  calicoes,  principally  the  former,  valued  at  not  less  than 
$7,500,000.  In  the  production  of  its  union  fabrics  the  mill  works 


24 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  INDUSTRIES. 


up  each  year  thirty-five  hundred  thousand  pounds  of  fleece  wool 
or  the  fleeces  of  ten  thousand  sheep  each  week.  For  washing 
this  wool  it  makes  and  consumes  annually  two  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  pounds  of  soap,  composed  by  the  domestic  products, 
lard  and  caustic  soda.  It  combines  with  this  wool,  in  the  form 
of  cotton  warps,  thirty-five  hundred  thousand  pounds  of  cotton. 
In  the  processes  of  spinning  and  weaving  it  expends  twelve  thou- 
sand gallons  of  lubricating  oils  and  ten  thousand  gallons  of  olive 
oil.  The  raw  materials  for  dyeing  and  printing,  such  as  soda 
ash,  sulphur,  prussiates  of  potash,  the  various  preparations  of 
tin,  the  dye  woods,  indigo,  cochineal,  yellow  berries,  and  aniline 
colors,  &c.,  require  an ‘annual  expenditure  of  $400,000.  The 
consumption  of  potato  starch  is  five  hundred  tons  a year,  or  the 
product  of  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  thousand  bushels  of 
potatoes.  $30,000  a year  is  expended  in  lumber  and  nails  for 
packing  boxes,  an  expenditure  which,  in  twenty  years,  would 
build  up  a considerable  town.  As  much  more  is  expended  an- 
nually in  iron,  steel,  lumber,  and  paints  for  repairs ; fourteen 
thousand  tons  of  coal  are  consumed  yearly,  although  the  motive 
power  of  the  mill  is  water.  To  this  may  be  added  the  food  and 
clothing  of  thirty-six  hundred  operatives  aud  of  their  dependants, 
at  least  twice  as  many  more,  and  the  items  of  transporta- 
tion of  raw  material  and  manufactured  products.  Consider- 
ing these  multiform  relations,  how  vast  is  the  wave  of  pro- 
duction set  in  motion  by  the  wheels  of  a single  mill,  and  how 
broadly  extended  are  its  ever-enlarging  circles ; for  the  mate- 
rials of  consumption  above  enumerated  show  that  the  pro- 
ductive stimulus  of  this  industrial  centre  moves  labor,  not  only 
in  fields  of  the  South  and  the  pastures  of  the  West,  but  in  the 
plains  of  India,  the  forests  of  Brazil,  and  the  islands  of  the 
equator. 

The  wool  manufacture  makes  itself  auxiliary  to. other  textile 
arts,  as  to  those  of  linen  and  silk.  The  flax  or  linen  manu- 
facture is  particularly  allied  to  that  of  wool  in  the  produc- 
tion of  Brussels  and  tapestry  carpets.  A single  Brussels  carpet 
factory,  producing  five  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  yards  of  car- 
peting, consumes  annually  a quantity  of  linen  warps  of  the  value 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  INDUSTRIES. 


25 


of  $150,000.  Another  establishment,  making  principally  tapes- 
try, Brussels,  and  velvet  carpets,  to  the  extent  of  eight  hundred 
and  eighteen  thousand  yards,  besides  thirty  thousand  yards  of 
Brussels,  consumed  for  the  filling  and  backs  793,866  pounds  of 
linen  yarn  and  jute,  costing  $167,000,  besides  two  hundred  and 
two  thousand  pounds  of  cotton  yarn  for  warps,  costing  $90,000. 

The  silk  manufacture  is  an  important  contributor  to  the  wool- 
len industry.  One  form  of  the  alliance  of  silk  and  wool  is  the 
silk  poplin,  the  warp  being  of  long  combing  wool  and  the  weft 
of  silk.  This  tasteful,  though  useful  fabric,  is  now  largely  pro- 
duced in  Connecticut  and  New  Jersey,  and  the  American  produc- 
tion compares  favorably  with  the  celebrated  poplins  of  Ireland. 
Another  form  of  this  alliance  is  the  silk-warped  flannel,  now 
produced  in  our  mills  in  connection  with  the  manufacture  of  the 
beautiful  opera  flannels,  formerly  brought  exclusively  from 
France. 

The  most  important  form  is  the  silk-mixed  Cassimere,  the 
alliance  of  silk  with  merino  wool,  through  the  infinite  combina- 
tions made  by  our  Crompton  mule-producing  fabrics,  distin- 
guished for  their  subdued  lustre,  and  the  softness  of  their 
neutral  tints.  A single  manufacturing  house  of  your  city, 
whose  silk  and  wool  mixtures  are  admitted  to  vie  with  those  of 
Elboeuf,  and  which,  as  I shrewdly  suspect,  the  dealers,  not  the 
manufacturers,  usually  sell  as  such,  consumes  annually  $150,000 
worth  of  American  silk  organzine.  The  whole  amount  of  silk 
consumed  by  our  mills  is  estimated  by  good  authority  at  not  less 
in  value  than  a million  dollars. 

I can  barely  refer  to  two  other  very  important  industries,  one 
of  which  is  directly  in  one  department,  and  the  other  mainly 
founded  upon  our  wool  manufacture, — the  manufacture  of  hats 
and  that  of  ready-made  clothing.  The  former,  in  one  of  its 
branches,- — that  of  wool  hats,  and  in  the  first  part  of  its  processes, 
the  preparation  of  raw  material, — is  really  a branch  of  the  wool 
manufacture.  It  is  too  important  a branch  not  to  be  referred  to, 
as  the  annual  production  of  wool  hats  in  the  United  States  ex- 
ceeds in  value  ten  million  dollars.  The  industry  of  ready-made 
clothing,  dating  back  no  further  than  1824,  and  now  the  most 

1 


26 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  INDUSTRIES. 


important  single  one  of  our  city  industries,  obtains  its  supply 
of  material  substantially  from  the  American  wool  manu- 
facture. The  official  statistics  of  Massachusetts  for  1865  show 
that  this  industry  in  the  city  of  Boston  alone  yielded  a produc- 
tion of  $15,186,833,  and  employed  fourteen  hundred  and  sev- 
enty-nine males  and  nineteen  thousand,  two  hundred  and  five 
females.  If  the  production  in  the  other  cities  is  in  the  same  pro- 
portion, the  part  which  the  offspring  plays  in  supporting  Ameri- 
can labor  is  scarcely  less  important  than  that  of  the  parent 
industry. 

I have  not  time  to  trace  the  relations  of  the  woollen  manufacture 
to  the  chemical  arts,  nor  to  follow  in  any  detail  the  progress  of 
discovery  from  the  period  of  the  great  impulse  given  by  Colbert, 
who,  in  introducing  the  woollen  manufacture  into  France,  made 
improvement  in  the  art  of  dyeing  the  object  of  special  care, 
considering,  as  he  happily  says,  " dyeing  as  the  soul  of  tissues, 
without  which  the  body  could  hardly  exist.”  The  discovery  of 
Prussian  blue  in  1704,  of  chromium  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
century,  the  fixing  of  color  by  means  of  steam  in  1810,  the  ap- 
plication to  union  fabrics  in  1857,  the  discovery  of  alizarine  in 
1826,  of  murexide,  the  reproduction  of  the  Tyrian  dye  in  1856, 
of  aniline  dyes  from  coal  tar  in  the  same  year,  and  finally  the  most 
brilliant  chemical  discovery  of  the  last  two  years,  that  of  pro- 
ducing from  coal  tar  the  coloring  principle*  of  madder,  alizarine, 
— a discovery  of  such  practical  value  that  the  product  of  the 
coal  fields  is  already  replacing  the  product  of  the  madder  fields 
among  the  Scotch  dyers.  Most  of  these  discoveries  have  had 
their  impulse,  as  the  great  industries  which  supply  the  materials 
for  dyeing  have  their  support,  in  the  textile  arts,  and  principally 
in  the  woollen  industry,  which  makes  the  largest  application  of 
color. 

I must  hasten  to  my  final  illustration ; the  relations  of  the 
woollen  manufacture  to  the  industries  producing  machinery.  In 
this  view  I do  not  regard  of  chief  importance  the  many  spe- 
cial industries  directly  and  exclusively  employed  in  constructing 
machinery  and  supplies  for  our  mills,  although  the  capital  and 
labor  which  they  employ  make  them  worthy  of  more  than  a pass- 
ing notice.  A few  establishments  construct  all  the  classes  of 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  INDUSTRIES. 


27 


machinery  made  use  of  in  our  mills.  But  generally  the  work  is 
divided.  Some  build  only  pickers,  others  carding  machines, 
others  jacks,  others  looms,  others  shears.  Others  make  supplies 
for  both  woollen  and  cotton  mills,  as  card  clothing,  reeds,  har- 
nesses, shuttles,  bobbins,  spools,  and  belting.  The  bare  enumera- 
tion shows  how  important  is  this  direct  relation  of  the  woollen 
manufacture.  But  I desire  in  closing  to  call  your  attention  to  a 
broader  view,  and  therefore  will  not  separate  the  woollen  manu- 
facture from  the  other  textile  arts  of  which  it  was  the  pioneer. 

The  textile  industries  of  the  wool  and  cotton  made,  in  England 
during  the  last  century,  the  first  extended  application  of  the  new 
motor  power,  steam,  which,  for  some  time  after  its  appearance, 
had  been  condemned  to  a sort  of  obscurity  by  being  applied  only 
to  the  drainage  of  mines.  The  power  of  steam  was  first  made 
conspicuous  by  the  woollen  and  cotton  mills.  The  factory  system 
and  the  movement  of  textile  machinery  by  power  demanded  the 
construction  of  great  numbers  of  pieces  of  machinery  of  the  same 
dimensions,  and  also  the  construction  of  works  of  nice  mechan- 
ism, which  the  mere  hand-craftsmen,  the  whitesmiths  of  a former 
age,  could  not  supply  in  sufficient  number,  nor  with  the  requisite 
precision  of  construction.  Machine  shops  were,  therefore, 
erected  upon  a large  scale,  to  be  moved  by  power.  It  is  well 
known  that  the  great  machine  shops  of  this  country  arose  con- 
temporaneously with  the  factories  in  Providence,  Lowell,  and 
Philadelphia.  The  necessities  of  the  textile  manufactures,  then, 
and  for  the  first  time,  called  into  existence  the  automatic  mechani- 
cal contrivances  called  machine  tools  and  engines  ; the  planers  and 
lathes  and  steam  hammers  which  substitute  the  firm,  iron  arm 
for  the  weak  and  uncertain  human  hand,  — contrivances  which 
have  caused  the  disappearance,  in  the  manufacturing  world  at 
least,  of  the  file,  the  plane,  the  chisel,  the  auger,  the  drill,  in 
the  hand  of  man,  except  for  the  most  trivial  and  unimportant 
purposes.  The  power  and  accuracy  of  constructive  art  were 
thus  marvellously  extended.  Masses  of  iron  of  thirty  or  forty 
tons’  weight  are  wrought  and  transformed  with  more  facility  and 
in  less  time  than  a bar  of  a few  hundreds’  weight  could  have 
been  fifty  years  ago.  The  precision  of  construction  attained  is 
so  perfect,  according  to  President  Barnard,  the  chief  ornament 


28 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  INDUSTRIES. 


of  the  science  of  your  city,  who  has  suggested  much  which  I have 
just  said,  that  the  dimensions  of  a required  piece  of  work  may  be 
gauged  to  the  one-millionth  part  of  an  inch.  The  machine  tools, 
created  by  and  for  the  textile  manufactures,  were  now  ready  for 
new  applications.  River  and  lake  steamboats,  locomotives, 
ocean  steamers,  monitors,  appeared  in  succession,  the  methods 
of  interior  transportation  are  revolutionized,  and  the  entire 
naval  marine,  and  almost  entire  commercial  marine  of  the  world 
are  completely  transformed.  In  all  the  manufacturing  nations, 
and  particularly  in  our  own,  a passion  for  invention  has  been 
developed  with  the  new  facilities  for  putting  in  practice  the  con- 
ceptions of  inventive  power.  The  arts  succeed  each  other  by  a 
true  generation.  Idea  begets  idea,  and  the  invention  of  to-day 
gives  birth  to  the  invention  of  to-morrow.  In  the  genial  atmos- 
phere of  invention  new  industries  take  root  in  the  old,  like 
epiphytes  in  the  humid  forests  of  the  tropics.  Watchmaking 
by  machinery  was  established  at  Waltham,  the  cradle  of  the  cotton 
manufacture  in  Massachusetts ; and  a still  more  luxurious  art, 
the  working  of  silver  plate  by  machinery,  was  founded  at  Provi- 
dence, the  birthplace  of  the  cotton  manufacture  of  Rhode  Island. 

For  a long  time  the  mechanical  arts  reacted  chiefly  upon  each 
other.  The  inventive  and  constructive  power  invoked  by  manu- 
factures reached  tardily,  but  at  length,  the  fields  of  husbandry. 
The  labor-saving  machinery  of  the  farm,  the  harvesters,  reapers, 
mowers,  and  planters  of  the  last  two  decades,  came  into  exist- 
ence. Agriculture,  now  doubled  in  its  productive  capacity,  not 
by  improvements  properly  its  own,  but  through  the  auxiliary 
forces  of  the  mechanical  arts,  presents  the  final  and  triumphant 
demonstration  of  the  solidarity  of  the  industries.  This  is  the 
idea  which  called  into  existence  your  noble  Institute,  which  in- 
spires the  grand  expositions  that  distinguish  the  present  age,  and 
which  you  have  made  so  obvious  to  our  senses  by  placing  the 
dahlia,  the  grape  cluster,  and  the  wheat  sheaf  by  the  side  of  the 
organ,  the  engine,  and  the  loom,  and  by  gathering  all  these  fair 
products  of  labor  under  the  self-supporting  carpentry  of  this 
vast  dome,  which  is  thus  an  emblem  of  the  unity  of  national 
industry. 


